Issue 033 PDF Version - Christian Ethics Today

life. In so many ways, don’t we really still live apart? We may
attend school together, work together, and play together.
Sadly, however, we are not so much doing these things together
as we are simply in the same place doing them separately, but
in each other’s presence. 6
Here’s a valid reason to begin relating across those barriers
that separate us: we do it because it’s right—because it’s the
law. We MUST guarantee that everyone at Hardin-Simmons
has equal opportunities for success and happiness, because our
nation was founded on the belief that this equality is a basic
human right. Yet, there’s a higher motivation for welcoming
multiculturalism.
That is the fourth reason—namely, we look out for others
because to do so is good! This is the moral answer.
Morality demands more of us than legality. Why do we try to
get along with others? Well, we relate to each other with tolerance
because that’s the way we should act.
Moral philosophers have long taught this kind of regard
for others. Plato considered the crowning human virtue to be
justice, understood as “the virtue of harmonious action [that]
forges a link between the individual and the social dimensions
of life.” Justice, thus, “is not merely a personal virtue but is
preeminently a social one” 7 that determines how one treats
others. The German thinker Immanuel Kant argued centuries
later that people should act in such a way that they could be
satisfied were their action to become a universal behavioral
norm. 8 But these European ideas were preceded in time by
similar wisdom from Asia. For example, Confucius taught his
followers to cultivate loyalty, humanity, integrity, mutual
respect, personal self-restraint, and harmonious family and
social relationships. 9 Likewise Shantideva, an ancient Buddhist
philosopher, taught the importance of a proper attitude
toward one’s enemy. “If you can cultivate the right attitude,”
he said, “your enemies are your best spiritual teachers because
their presence provides you with the opportunity to enhance
and develop tolerance, patience, and understanding.” 10
We tolerate those who are different from ourselves because
sages and saints of world history have believed that this kind of
mutual acceptance is the just way to act. At Hardin-Simmons,
we MUST treat everyone fairly, for such actions will distinguish
our campus as a place where all can feel at home and
26 • APRIL 2001 • CHRISTIAN ETHICS TODAY
where none is excluded. To do less would be to behave unjustly
and immorally.
But there is a higher reason still for embracing multiculturalism
on our campus: we reach out to others because it is
compassionate. This is the Christian answer. Tolerance is the
secular answer, the philosophical norm. But love is Jesus’ way.
And love is more demanding than tolerance. Jesus crossed all
kinds of barriers that separated the respectable religious folk of
his day from the “riff raff” of Palestinian society. He gathered
his disciples from among simple and uneducated Galileans.
He related positively to women, ministered to them in ways
that were daring, and praised their examples of godly living.
He touched the diseased bodies of the infirm to restore both
their health and place within the community. He took the side
of the poor and the dispossessed. He did battle with spiritual,
demonic powers to rescue the helpless and hopeless. He celebrated
the innocence of little children. He reached out to
social outcasts, Samaritans, and Gentiles. Little wonder that
Paul, one who felt accepted by Christ and miraculously called
to be his missionary, penned a tribute to Jesus’ risky, inclusive
love. Paul wrote: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all
. . . are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Because of Jesus’
embrace of diverse peoples, in other words, Christians should
not practice racial, socioeconomic, or gender discrimination,
for all are one in Christ. We can only speculate what other barriers,
knocked down by Jesus’ compassion, Paul would articulate
were he to write this reminder to believers in today’s
divisive world!
We MUST love others here because that’s the godly thing
to do, for God is love. That doesn’t mean that we will
necessarily appreciate someone’s behavior or choices, even as
we love them. It certainly doesn’t mean that we have to condone
their actions before we can accept them. That would be
conditional love, yet we know that God’s kind of love—the
agape we are commanded to practice toward others (John
13:34-35)—is unconditional. Frankly, if Jesus walked the
streets and hallways of our campus today, he would meet
everywhere people who differ from him—people whose
behavior and choices sadden him. How might he respond?